12.06.2016

STANDING
ROCK

A NEW STORY OF EFFECTIVE NONVIOLENT RESISTANCE

12/6/16

summer time view of pipe being installed

The compound they are setting up for drilling under the lake

We (the Meta Peace
Team International Exploratory Team), are privileged to be here as
part of this marvelous campaign of nonviolent resistance at Standing
Rock Oceti Sakowin Camp in North Dakota. The nonviolent campaign is
resisting the final leg of construction of the Dakota Access pipeline
near the Reservation that would threaten their water.

In a time of much
darkness, with fossil fuel corporations ravishing the land in their
greed to grow richer, and the Trump presidency about to begin, it is
a story of effective resistance against a mountain of odds working
against them. The astounding news came on December 4 that the
Obama administration denied the permit necessary for the
Dakota Access Pipeline to be completed.

We're
talking about holding up
billions of dollars of
profit. The
pipeline, costing $3.8 billion to build, would transport 470,000
barrels of oil a day across four states extending 1,172 miles.

Over the past
months, local and state police have viciously attacked the nonviolent
Water Protectors with water cannons in freezing weather, with attack
dogs, clubs, rubber bullets, tear gas, mace, and threats.
Temperatures in the camp have reached below zero at times. More than
500 were arrested over the past few months. A few hundred have been
injured.

Then the Army Corps
of Engineers gave a December 5 deadline for the Water Protectors to
leave their camp site that is on Corp-managed land. North Dakota
Governor Jack Dalrymple issued an emergency evacuation order
following on the Army Corp of Engineers order. Even with this threat,
they have not been able to make the Water Protector community back
down or withdraw. December 5 was looking like a horrible assault
about to happen.

Then came the
stunning Army Corps of Engineers announcement on December 4 that the
permit to drill and lay the
pipe under the riverbed is denied. The pipeline construction was at a
halt. Energy Transfer Partners and Sunoco Logistics Partners, the
corporations behind the pipeline are expressing anger at this affront
to their power.

How did the Standing
Rock Sioux Nation do it? Not armed with guns, knives, violent weapons
of any kind in the Oceti Sakowin Camp near the pipeline construction.

They built the
resistance camp community with prayer, Sacred Fire ceremonies, and
their spirit of reverence for all people and the earth. They
displayed courage and nonviolent discipline in the face of great
violent force. They welcomed all who come in support and oriented
them to this spirit of respect and mutual taking care of one another.

The campaign used
the media effectively. The many facets of media displayed pictures of
the brutal attacks, and the courage of the people, and this inspired
many across the country and beyond to respond.

They put out the
call for support from Native people across the country, and they
came. They called all people of good will to come join them. May of
the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation are U. S. military war veterans.
They put out the call to veterans of America to come. And thousands
came. To top it off, a contingent of 5,000 vets organized by Wesley
Clark Jr. was on its way to be there December 4 -7, when the forced
evacuation was to take place.

The local
enforcement leaders acknowledged that they didn't have the resources
to forcibly remove so many thousands from the camp.

This is a great victory, in the ongoing struggle. Energy Transfer
Partners insists the pipeline will be completed. Maybe the route will
be altered, far away from Reservation land. But if they pursue the
present site, we know they have an ongoing battle with the great
nonviolent force of the Standing Rock Sioux Nation and thousands who
stand with them. They have inspired people throughout the world
today.

In response to an invitation by the Standing Rock
Sioux Reservation in North Dakota, we are here as a Meta Peace
Team (MPT) International Exploratory Team.

We say “International” because the Sioux Nation by treaty is a
sovereign nation, locked in a complicated web of U.S.
federal-state-local laws and tribal laws, through centuries of
struggle, occupation and oppression.

We are here as part of the astounding Oceti Sakowin
Camp of Water Protectors at Standing Rock, obstructing the
completion of the Dakota Access Pipe Line construction that would be
a threat to their water.

We are also here by invitation to explore how we may be a resource of
nonviolence training for the Standing Rock people.

We come as white people, born and bred in the white U.S. culture,
truly uninformed (ignorant) of their ways of thinking, feeling,
relating to others and the earth. We know also that we still have
ingrained biases we have not yet flushed out of our psyches toward
others that are “different” from us. We come as learners, as well
as companions in the struggle, with some things to share.

Years ago we did a nonviolence training in Michigan. One of our
trainers was half Native American, half white. He shared a list of
values and traits of Native Americans. One African-American making
the training jumped up excitedly and exclaimed: “Those are the
values and traits we have as African-Americans! The lesson for me
was, that people of color share values in common that are different
than those of European Americans.

We are struck by the general accent
on the sacred. People and the earth are sacred. There is sacred
ritual fire. Relationships are sacred. Land is sacred. Water is
sacred. Burial grounds are sacred. Menstruation is sacred. (“It is
our honoring,” said one woman). Being an elder is sacred.

We entered one tent in the camp referred to as the Michigan tent.
Mostly there were Native Americans.
At one point, an elder asked for our attention, then asked one
Native American woman there to come forward, to her surprise. He told
us of her bravery during the confrontations with police as they
violently tried to force the Water Protectors back. He then
reverently took out a strikingly beautiful large eagle feather,
reverently handed it to her as a token of the community's gratitude.
It was a sacred moment.

The seven Lakota (one of the Sioux bands) values are Fortitude,
Respect, Compassion, Honesty, Generosity, Bravery, Wisdom. Some
things we heard in the camp “Come with a clean heart.” “If an
elder tells you something, that is a blessing.” “Listen.” White
relations tend to be transactional, vs the Native American way of
first building relationships.

Everyone wants to
know about the camp, about pipeline resistance. But on a personal
level working with the indigenous nations people I am aware of the
crossing of cultures. I think many of us either view their culture
as quaint or mythologizes it. But I need to see and accept them for
what they. That includes seeing myself for what I am. I grew up in
a colonizing culture, my culture has figured out a million ways to
justify and live off colonization. Our three major religions are the
Abrahamic religions which say “let them [people] have dominion over
the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the
livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that
creeps on the earth” Genesis 1:26. By contrast what I hear here is
a culture (and I am consciously distinguish from religion) in which
people are literally a part of the land and the animals, we are all
connected and interwoven. They frequently refer to the elements of
the world around them as relatives – it seems they feel that their
relative a deer for example has to give its life so that they can
live. This is in harsh contrast to our culture where for example our
Secretary of State (Madeleine Albright) could say 500,000 children
dying was worth it. Our Secretary of Defense and many people on the
street feel it is rational to say better to kill them over there than
over here. Our capitalist economy is not about surviving it is about
growing. Our foreign policy is about changing the government
structures and the economies of other countries to serve us better.
Our history has included a religious interpretation that promoted
converting and domination.

I need to come to
terms with being part of a colonizing culture. I will never be able
to change that. But by knowing that is the basis of how I have grown
up and lived I can better accept and respect non-colonizing cultures
as equals and different.

12.03.2016

Peter Dougherty and
Elliott Adams are in Standing Rock, North Dakota

as an MPT
International Exploratory Team.

Our first day on the
ground at Standing Rock. Following the blizzard there is snow on the
ground, but traveling in fine. Today was 28 degrees all day with a
fine rain. Spirits at the camp are high and despite the orders to
evacuate preparation for winter at the camp is moving ahead.

We have been asked
why we treat this MPT team as an International
Exploratory Team. In the geopolitical sense the Sioux people living
in Standing Rock view themselves as a separate sovereign nation. It
is self evident that they were a nation before the Europeans (us)
moved in. The US negotiated and signed nation to nation treaties with
them. Legally the US views them as a “domestic dependent nation”
(a legal creation of the Supreme Court to justify what we had done
and were doing) but still a nation.

It is informative,
if ancillary, to look at the creation of the legal idea “domestic
dependent nation.” The US Supreme Court under Justice John Marshall
(1808-1835) was faced with cases involving the conundrum of this
nation being built on the lands of the indigenous people. To say
those lands belonged to the indigenous people would be to say the
Supreme Court and even the young nation of USA did not exist. But
facts on the ground meant the court could not say the indigenous
people didn't exist or weren't a nation. With no legal basis to use
in what are now called the “Marshall Trilogy” the court resorted
to old European religious doctrines like the Doctrine of Discovery
(which says any land discovered by European Christians which is
occupied by non-Christians may be taken and the inhabitants who will
not convert to Christianity may be killed or enslaved). The Marshall
Trilogy dressed up religious principles as US law.

And this team is
also like other international teams because we are working across a
cultural divide. We all think of the cultural differences between the
US and Spain or France or even England, yet our culture is a direct
derivative of those cultures and only varies in small ways. With the Native Americans the differences of culture are much greater. While
they have all learned our language, the words and ideas have
different meanings because their culture is different. The culture we
have grown up in is a deeply colonization culture. Through the
brightly colored glasses of our colonization culture it is hard to
see the indigenous culture clearly. I do not pretend to understand
their culture and it is possible that I never could, but even on a
casual level one sees a difference in importance they put on people,
the role of elders, the way they their religion is part of everything
around them, their understanding of time, their relationships with
their ancestors. All of these things change what simple words or
casual acts meant.

This is an
international team in every sense except that we - the U.S.culture - have internalized
the idea that they are the “domestic dependent nation.”

12.25.2015

Today I waited for a
taxi to Ramalla where the Burin Road meets the main road. There was a man in his
30s who also wanted a taxi to Ramalla. But he was standing way back
up the side road. I could not figure out what he was doing. I asked
my hosts, who said he was afraid.

The road to Ramalla is to the left. The man down by the telephone pole on the road to the right is waiting for the taxi to Ramalla

He was afraid of being run over by a
settler's car. Once again, just last week a 15 year old boy was run over, only
50 meters from where I was waiting for the taxi.

Looking the other way the boy was run over near the telephone pole.

Unrelated to this incident in the first photo you can see the red sign. This is one version of the signs which are on every road that enters an Area A.

These signs are part of spreading fear. Maybe it is not deliberate, but if you drove by one of these signs a dozen times each day it is bound to effect your thinking. These also help keep the Israelis from meeting Palestinians.

12.24.2015

24 Dec 2015/ Meta Peace Team, Scott/ Burin
Colonial assault is visible in Burin. Since last year I can see 3 new houses expanding the "out posts" which are illegal (under Israeli law) expansions of illegal (under international law) colonial settlements. It is a process where a few radicals squat on land they do not own, build a house knowing that if they call the occupying army and say they are being threatened the army will arrest any Palestinian who dares to say it is their land.

on the hill in the middle of the picture you can see an outpost. The hill on the right has the highest house in Burin

A closer view of the house on the right. It is empty. The settlers came down and attacked it so much the family abandoned it.

In this picture you can see the last house going out the road of Burin. It too is empty, the settlers came down with torches and the family was afraid they would get burned up some time so the left their house.

The new houses on the hill impacted a friend of mine. She has olives high in the hill. This year when she went up there were new houses next to her olives. The soldiers would let here in for 2 days to pick olives, but she is not well and even if she was she could not pick all her olives in 2 days. Internationals who went up with her were forced by the occupying army to sit down by the gate into the olive orchard and watch. They were not even allowed to accompany while she worked. Mean while the woman and children from the new illegal houses yelled "bad things" at her.

24 Dec 2015/ Meta Peace Team, Scott/ FarunPeople build a house on their land and then are notified by Israel that it will be demolished. In some cases they just show up in the middle of the night and demolish it. Or Israel builds a wall near the town (cutting hundreds of families off from their farms) and then decides that some houses are too close to the wall they built and destroys them.

A few demolished homes

map of home demolition in FarunI tried to collect the data in the village if Farun, I picked Farun not because the situation us especially bad, but because it was small and easy for me to get to. It is just an example of life in the West Bank. I thought the village offices would have a complete list. But I found that the Israeli occupiers do not bother with the legal government, they just go to a home and hand them a demolition order. The legal government only finds out if the landowner happens ti tell them.To the best if my knowledge none of these demolitions are collective punishment, some are deemed a security risk (too close t the wall Israel put where they wanted to), some seem to have needed a permit, some don't comply with rules Israel created. As best I could find out there is no way to tell ahead of time if the house you are building will be demolished. Frequently it seems Israel waits until the house is finished before issuing a demolition order.

Add caption

It is hard to imagine demolishing homes like these

The map has several layer each with a given color pin and a given category of misuse. All layers may be turned on or off depending on what you want to look at. In case you can't find the layer side panel: red - demolished light reddish - demolition orders which have not been carried out yet yellow - is denial of use, some times Israel tells a land owner if the stop using a buiding, and don't finish building it or repair it Israel will not demolish it. This saves Israel the bad press of demolitions. green - are events like people getting shot which have become part of the culture gray - are and marks, these are to help people orientate themselves if they choose to do a self guided tour of Farun.

12.18.2015

Farmers gather and
demand their right to travel to their fields. The early morning sun
rays fell farmers huddled around fires to stay warm as they waited
for the Israeli army to arrive at the gate. This was a portion of the usual 200 farmers who
pass through the Deir al Ghusun agricultural gate each morning to get
to their fields which are on the Palestinian side of the Green line
(1949 Armistice) but cut off from Palestine by the apartheid wall.

Yesterday word was
sent out that Israel would shut this gate permanently requiring the
farmers to go to another gate, adding another hour and a half each
way to their daily travel. In addition it would require them to
cross the green line and walk along an Israeli road next to a
settlement.

farmers and tractors waite

Many gathered at the
gate; farmers, officials including the Mayor, and internationals to
protest this ruthless and needless action. After consultations and
discussions the military agreed first to only allow old men through,
but eventually to open the gate as usual.

This was a huge
victory, a tribute to the farmers who refused to give in, the
officials who added weight to the words if the farmers, and to the
internationals who came to watch as the eyes of the world. This will
not stop the humiliating searches, the unpredictable timing of daily
gate openings, or the whim of individual guards to deny access randomly or
tear up a permits. But it does allow the farmers to keep farming their land.

Palestinians "negotiate" with military commander through the locked gate

In an unintended
tribute to the international presence the military commander told the
officials to tell the observers that everything had been solved and
that there were no more problems. It is a reminder about the importance of people supporting or joining the international presence in
Palestine.

12.15.2015

We arrived at the
Agricultural Gate about 6:50 AM there were several farms waiting with
their donkeys. The gate is supposed to open at 8:00AM, but it can be
opened any time after 6:30AM. When it is opened the occupying
soldiers process the farmers that are there then close gate and
leave. One woman had arrived at 6 AM and got frustrated and left
before they opened the gate.

A lonely farmer heads from the old gate to the new gate in the early morning

This gate, which is
only for tractors and donkeys, is connected to the Ephraim check
point. The Farun Ag Gate was closed 1 Dec 2015. With that gate it
was 15 meters to one farmer's fields, now it is 3 kilometers. The
apartheid wall cut Farun farmers off from 4000 dunnum of their
farms.

Farmers gather in the early morning waiting for the gate to be opened

About 7:15AM four
soldiers arrived to unlock the gate. At 7:28, after 2 people and one
donkey had been processed the soldiers stopped the next person and
donkey. They spent ½ hour on the radio and consulting among
themselves before letting the second donkey through. They rejected
one donkey and driver and about 6 workers were rejected (they may
have been sent through the Ephraim gate). Five donkeys and 6 people
were allowed to go to work. Some days the soldiers don't even come.

7:36 the occupying
soldiers locked the gate, checked it for security and walked back to
the base.

The workers return
to the gate in the afternoon. The gates is supposed to be opened to
let them back through the wall at 4PM

A donkey waiting at the gate

Curiously closing the Ag Gate and making the farmers go much farther to get to their fields also takes more time for the soldiers. The gate is now much farther from the base suggesting that the only reason for doing it is ti harass the farmers.

12.13.2015

An example of the taking of land and penning in of communities can be found in the village of Far'un. The apartheid wall was a first step. As can be seen in the accompanying map at places the apartheid wall is placed 3 km inside the green line (1949 armistice line). A friend of ours had 400 acres confiscated when they built the wall.

Then the Israeli occupiers wanted check points so they could examine people and vehicles as they crossed from Palestine into Israel. The checkpoints are often elaborate with large buildings and extensive parking areas, all of which are carved out of Palestinian land. In the case of Far'un the occupiers were not satisfied with one check point, the wanted one that only processed trucks (At Tayba), one that only processed Palestinians (Ephraim), and one that only processed Israelis (Kafrait). See these on attached map

The names of the check points dominate the map At Tayba, Ephraim, Kafriat, the location is marked with an X in a circle. The bold red line is the apatheid wall. The dashed green line is the "green line." About centered is the Village of Far'un, it is shown in a yellowish, brownish color. The blue area is all Area C (contoled by Israel)

The apartheid wall around Far'un is mostly a fence, but it is an electified fence that has a road and also a buffer zone on both sides so it is about 50 meters wide of cleared and bulldozed land, Palestinain land. If you look at the attached google image you can see that the apartheid wall is the most prominent feature visible and that it is 2 to 3 times wider than the biggest road in the image. Looking at the map you can see they put the wall right next to the village on the south and west sides, which necessitated demolishing houses. Some people say “Israel wants the most geography with the least demography.” In other words they want the most land they can get without getting any Palestinians. What ever the rational one can see the wall cuts right next to the edge of the village, it separates the villagers from the land they own and which has fed their families for generations.

Besides building the apartheid wall they control the land near the wall. For example in the google image on the left side you can see a brown rectangle. This was the village children's soccer field. But the occupiers decided it was too close to the wall they had just built so they stopped the children from using it under threat that they would be shot. In fact a 9 year old girl was shot (2006) on the road near the ball field, shot just for being there. Adding insult to injury some occupying soldiers drove their jeeps into the ball field spinning their tires and turning tight corners rutting up the ball field. In the village some say the soldiers were drunk. It is hard to imagine how some kids playing ball could be a threat. It is 100 meters to the area of the apartheid wall which is 50 meters wide and another 150 meters to the closest Israeli structure which is a fortified military base. Can the soldiers really be afraid of a child playing socker 300 meters away?

Houses and structures near the apartheid wall have been demolished and continue to be demolished. As an example a family with 4 sons and one daughter worked for 11 years to build a house for the family, but when it was completed the occupiers demolished it (in 2014). Not only did it put 7 people out of a home but the shock and grief caused the father to die. The houses on both sides of this house were not demolished even though they were closer to the wall. There is not some map or a way the residents can tell if their house will be allowed. They build on their land after years of planning, saving and work. When the house is finished they are told it will be demolished. We do not know how many houses have been demolished, but we visited many that were rubble. There are about 12 in the village that are currently scheduled for demolition.

It all seems so irrational. In a large section of land on the southwest of the village (lower right of google image) no farming or activity of any kind is allowed, yet right close to the wall surrounded by this no use area a greenhouse and small field next to it is allowed (see photo).

These green houses are allowed. The apartheid wall can be seen in the upper left. All the land behind the green house, to the right of the green house and in front is not allowed to be used even to pick olives.

At another spot a new farm has been scheduled to be demolished including the little new fuit trees.

On the north and east side of the village there is no apartheid wall, but here it is Area C, over which the occupiers claim complete control even though they acknowledge they do not own the land or the buildings. On the north side of the village a Christian neighborhood was demolished. You can see from the photo that there are houses, which are not schedued for demolition, on three sides of the demolished neighborhood. One half of the girl's school, also on the north of the village, is scheduled for demolition. In the photo below you can see that it is a continuous wall but that part of it is older. The old part is scheduled to be demolished. Another photo shows a pinkish brown 3 story new building scheduled for demolition yet the buildings around it are not scheduled for demolition.

The Christian houses were in the area of the red circle. The girls school is to the left of the red circle.

The left part of school is scheduled for demolition, the right part is not.

On the east of the village the same thing is happening, see the photos of three houses that are scheduled for demolition. They are no where near the apartheid wall, they seem to pose not imaginable threat to anything. These are just new family houses being built as anyone would on the family land after years of planning, work, and pride.

We visited another category of buildings which are not scheduled to be demolished but only because the owners have agreed to stop construction, or repair, and to not use them. These do not appear as part of the numbers of demolitions, but still the work, investment and hope has been stolen from the family.

We visited a building which used to be home, but the family was told they had to move out or it would be demolished (2006). In 2010 Israel gave them permission to convert it from a home to a wedding hall and as such it would not be demolished or at least not now. This building is in the village and surrounded by other buildings which are not under orders to be demolished.

The Village of Far'un is just one example, there is nothing saying this village is to be eliminated yet is subjected to continued demolitions and denial of use of their land on all four sides.

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(Please note that it is the goal of MPT that information on this blog by our Peace Team members be presented in the most professional, factual way possible; however, the views or opinions expressed are those of the writer(s) only and do not necessarily reflect the view of MPT as an organization.)

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Press Release: April 8, 2008

For Immediate Release:

MICHIGAN PEACE TEAM (MPT) SENDS TEAM OF FOUR TO THE WEST BANK

Citizens of the West Bank report that the presence of MPT members is effective in decreasing violence in the region.

West Bank; April 8, 2008: A four member team of the Michigan Peace Team, ages ranging from 26 - 69, has arrived in the Occupied West Bank. The team will be working with Palestinians, Israelis and other Internationals to promote nonviolent conflict resolution.

MPT’s violence reduction team is prepared to engage in a variety of nonviolent methods to de-escalate potentially volatile situations. Team members accompany Palestinian children to school and shepherds to their fields (both of which are in danger of being attacked by extremist Israeli settlers), and act as international observers at military checkpoints. Additionally, they join with other Israelis, Palestinians and other Internationals in demonstrating against the Separation wall Israel is constructing on Palestinian land.

On March 13, 2008, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon addressed the Islamic Summit in Dakar and relayed that violence against unarmed Palestinian citizens continues to escalate. He said that Israel’s disproportionate and excessive use of force against the Palestinians has led to a large number of civilian casualties, including children. "Israel has to comply with the law and international legality and show restraint. We condemn the Israeli attacks on Palestinian peoples," he said.

Michigan Peace Team was founded in 1993. It provides trainings in active nonviolence designed for the specific needs of the participants, and deploys peace teams into places of conflict (both domestically and internationally) to reduce violence. MPT convenes, supports, and participates with local peace action groups and gatherings, and mentors individuals seeking experience with international tams in places of conflict. It also educates the public to the vision and practice of active nonviolence. MPT has deployed peace teams into areas of potential violence around the world.